Tuesday, April 18

MacDonald Mediation Inc (2)

A while ago I wondered aloud about the value to our community of pay-to-belong mediator outfits like this clipping the ticket.

Now Mediation Law Firms run by Joe Butch of Fort Lauderdale no less, has coined the phrase 'mediation law' (gotta love it!) and says:

'Mediation law is becoming a popular way to help settle arguments between two or more people. Mediation law has successfully been applied to various legal topics. They include: divorce mediation, peer mediation, family mediation, federal mediation, child custody mediation and conflict mediation. If you feel that going through a lengthy and costly court battle is not for you, contact our expert mediation law attorneys today for help'

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found the list of types of mediation very interesting, especially "conflict mediation". It seems to suggest there may be mediation where there is no conflict. Always wanting to be prepared for what ever is thrown at me I started to think about how I would handle a mediation which did not involve conflict. One way would be to make the problem fit my tools. I could ask my open questions and reality check the parties to find or create whatever conflict I could then resolve the conflict. Or I could search for the real interests of the parties until we found interests they had in common they were previously not aware of and they could go off to explore these wonderful new interests. I also wondered if conflict mediation was listed seperatly from divorce mediation did that mean divorce mediation did not involve conflict. If religion does not solve your problem and you want to try the other end of the spectrum try mediation law.

Anonymous said...

As the owner of the 'outfit' ADRWeb, I can happily inform you and your readers in New Zealand that we've many satisfied attorney-mediator clients in Canada (www.adrweb.ca), Florida (www.floridamediators.org) and now California (www.californianeutrals.org)

Those neutrals that have a schedule worth speaking of in the first place are generally not afraid to let their clients know their available dates, though it's by no means obligatory for inclusion in the roster. The QuickSearch feature on each of our sites is bookmarked by in excess of 1000 known law firms and unions across North America, who regularly use the portal(s) to expedite the process of finding a suitably experienced neutral, and simultaneously check their upcoming availability.

We've had over 90% of subscribers renew year on year, with word of mouth amongst the statewide ADR communities bringing more folks on board over that time. New members are only invited after our firm has done the 'due diligence' following up with attorney references, and running the applicant's CV by our Advisory Committee of local neutrals for each roster. We actively work with each region's ADR community directly, not simply pop up a list of names on a website for a member fee :)
- Similarly, we sponsor and work with Florida Supreme Court's DRC section, the AFTL association in FL, and even syndicate the floridamediator.blogspot.com news pages on our own FL website for the benefit of our regular clients.

With the 2 USA sites, we've also made the decision to allow only prequalified, state-certified *attorney mediators* online, as the CA and FL roster sites receive more than 80% of their traffic from local state law firms, who are not interested in hiring non-attorneys for litigated issues.

"MacDonalds Mediation" suggests that all our members are sat around like so many similar tasteless chicken nuggets, waiting to be purchased as any other commodity. Rather, we present a wide and varied selection of experts (along with their schedules) for the benefit of the local law firms and organizatoins. We're more like an exclusive "a la carte buffet", catering to a wide range of tastes and for attorney mouths only. Less than 20% of our traffic comes from search engines, with the vast majority coming from our member's key demographic: law firms, attorneys, firm support staff etc.

Best Regards,
Darren Lee
VP, ADRWEB INC. (www.adrweb.ca)
Exec Administrator, FloridaMediators.org and CaliforniaNeutrals.org